Korean Liberation Army

The Korean Liberation Army (KLA) was the armed force of the Provisional Government of the Republic of Korea, active from 27 September 1940 to 1945. The KLA brought together many Korean guerrilla armies that proliferated in northern Korea, Manchuria, and mainland China during the 1920s, and the KLA fought in World War II against Japan alongside the Allies in China and Southeast Asia. From 1941 to 1944, the KLA was subjected to the authority of the Chinese Kuomintang, and its forces notably fought in Burma in 1944. In 1943, Kim Won-bong's socialist-aligned guerrilla groups joined the KLA, and he became the KLA's deputy commander, while Ji Cheong-cheon served as the KLA's commandant. The KLA grew to have almost 1,000 troops at the end of the war, and it was planning to liberate Korea with US military assistance by the time that Japan anounced its surrender in August 1945. Many KLA members became a part of the South Korean government, while Kim Won-bong and some others contributed to the North Korean regime of Kim Il-sung, who himself claimed to have been a KLA commander.